Project Funding: 2009 - 2013

NRA: 2008 NASA: Terrestrial Ecology   

Funded by NASA

Abstract:
The Soil Moisture Active and Passive (SMAP) mission is one of four missions recommended by the U.S. National Research Council Committee on Earth Science and Applications from Space for launch in the 2010-2013 time frame ('Earth Science and Applications from Space: National Imperatives for the Next Decade and Beyond', National Academies Press, 2007). SMAP will use a combined L-band radiometer and radar instrument suite to measure near-surface soil moisture and freeze-thaw state dynamics, providing new opportunities for scientific advances and societal benefits. These new measurements will aid understanding of regional and global water cycles, ecosystem productivity and related processes linking water, energy and carbon cycles. SMAP will provide global mapping of surface soil moisture and freeze-thaw state dynamics on a daily basis from 10-40km and 1-3km spatial scales, respectively, over a planned 1-3 year mission life. A major science objective of the SMAP mission is to reduce uncertainty regarding carbon uptake and release in boreal landscapes and the so-called missing carbon sink on land. An operational level 4 carbon product is also planned that will combine ancillary satellite FPAR information from MODIS and VIIRS with SMAP based information on soil moisture and thermal constraints to vegetation productivity and respiration processes to estimate net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE) globally, and with relatively fine (1-km Res.) spatial scale processing. Additional project information on the SMAP mission website: http://smap.jpl.nasa.gov.

Publications:

He, M., Kimball, J. S., Running, S., Ballantyne, A., Guan, K., Huemmrich, F. 2016. Satellite detection of soil moisture related water stress impacts on ecosystem productivity using the MODIS-based photochemical reflectance index. Remote Sensing of Environment. 186, 173-183. DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2016.08.019

Hursh, A., Ballantyne, A., Cooper, L., Maneta, M., Kimball, J., Watts, J. 2016. The sensitivity of soil respiration to soil temperature, moisture, and carbon supply at the global scale. Global Change Biology. 23(5), 2090-2103. DOI: 10.1111/gcb.13489

Jones, L. A., Kimball, J. S., Reichle, R. H., Madani, N., Glassy, J., Ardizzone, J. V., Ardizzone, J. V., Colliander, A., Cleverly, J., Desai, A. R., Eamus, D., Euskirchen, E. S., Hutley, L., Macfarlane, C., Scott, R. L. 2017. The SMAP Level 4 Carbon Product for Monitoring Ecosystem Land-Atmosphere CO2Exchange. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing. 55(11), 6517-6532. DOI: 10.1109/TGRS.2017.2729343

Madani, N., Kimball, J., Jones, L., Parazoo, N., Guan, K. 2017. Global Analysis of Bioclimatic Controls on Ecosystem Productivity Using Satellite Observations of Solar-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence. Remote Sensing. 9(6), 530. DOI: 10.3390/rs9060530

Colliander, A., McDonald, K., Zimmermann, R., Schroeder, R., Kimball, J. S., Njoku, E. G. 2012. Application of QuikSCAT Backscatter to SMAP Validation Planning: Freeze/Thaw State Over ALECTRA Sites in Alaska From 2000 to 2007. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing. 50(2), 461-468. DOI: 10.1109/TGRS.2011.2174368

Entekhabi, D., Njoku, E. G., O'Neill, P. E., Kellogg, K. H., Crow, W. T., Edelstein, W. N., Entin, J. K., Goodman, S. D., Jackson, T. J., Johnson, J., Kimball, J., Piepmeier, J. R., Koster, R. D., Martin, N., McDonald, K. C., Moghaddam, M., Moran, S., Reichle, R., Shi, J. C., Spencer, M. W., Thurman, S. W., Tsang, L., Van Zyl, J. 2010. The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Mission. Proceedings of the IEEE. 98(5), 704-716. DOI: 10.1109/JPROC.2010.2043918

Kim, Y., Kimball, J. S., Zhang, K., McDonald, K. C. 2012. Satellite detection of increasing Northern Hemisphere non-frozen seasons from 1979 to 2008: Implications for regional vegetation growth. Remote Sensing of Environment. 121, 472-487. DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2012.02.014

Kimball, J. S., Jones, L. A., Zhang, K., Heinsch, F. A., McDonald, K. C., Oechel, W. C. 2009. A Satellite Approach to Estimate Land-Atmosphere $\hbox{CO}_{2}$ Exchange for Boreal and Arctic Biomes Using MODIS and AMSR-E. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing. 47(2), 569-587. DOI: 10.1109/TGRS.2008.2003248

Kimball, J.S., R. Reichle, K.C. McDonald, and P.E. O'Neill, 2011. SMAP Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document: L4 Carbon Product. SMAP Project, JPL D-66484, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena CA., 65 pp. smap.jpl.nasa.gov/files/smap2/L4_C_InitRel_v1_filt.pdf

McGuire, A. D., Christensen, T. R., Hayes, D., Heroult, A., Euskirchen, E., Kimball, J. S., Koven, C., Lafleur, P., Miller, P. A., Oechel, W., Peylin, P., Williams, M., Yi, Y. 2012. An assessment of the carbon balance of Arctic tundra: comparisons among observations, process models, and atmospheric inversions. Biogeosciences. 9(8), 3185-3204. DOI: 10.5194/bg-9-3185-2012

Velicogna, I., Tong, J., Zhang, T., Kimball, J. S. 2012. Increasing subsurface water storage in discontinuous permafrost areas of the Lena River basin, Eurasia, detected from GRACE. Geophysical Research Letters. 39(9). DOI: 10.1029/2012GL051623

Watts, J. D., Kimball, J. S., Jones, L. A., Schroeder, R., McDonald, K. C. 2012. Satellite Microwave remote sensing of contrasting surface water inundation changes within the Arctic-Boreal Region. Remote Sensing of Environment. 127, 223-236. DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2012.09.003

Yi, Y., Kimball, J. S., Jones, L. A., Reichle, R. H., McDonald, K. C. 2011. Evaluation of MERRA Land Surface Estimates in Preparation for the Soil Moisture Active Passive Mission. Journal of Climate. 24(15), 3797-3816. DOI: 10.1175/2011JCLI4034.1

Yi, Y., Kimball, J. S., Jones, L. A., Reichle, R. H., Nemani, R., Margolis, H. A. 2013. Recent climate and fire disturbance impacts on boreal and arctic ecosystem productivity estimated using a satellite-based terrestrial carbon flux model. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences. 118(2), 606-622. DOI: 10.1002/jgrg.20053

2015 NASA Carbon Cycle & Ecosystems Joint Science Workshop Poster(s)

• The Role of Snow Cover and Soil Freeze/Thaw Cycles Affecting Boreal-Arctic Soil Carbon Dynamics   --   (Yonghong Yi, John Kimball, Michael Rawlins, Mahta Moghaddam, Eugenie Euskirchen)   [abstract]

2013 NASA Terrestrial Ecology Science Team Meeting Poster(s)

• Recent climate and fire disturbance impacts on boreal and arctic ecosystem productivity   --   (Yonghong Yi, John Kimball, Lucas Jones, Rolf Reichle, Ramakrishna Nemani, Hank Margolis)   [abstract]

2011 NASA Carbon Cycle & Ecosystems Joint Science Workshop Poster(s)

• Satellite Based Assessment of Net Ecosystem CO2 Exchange under the Soil Moisture Active Passive Mission   --   (John S Kimball, Yonghong Yi, Lucas A Jones, Rolf Reichle, Kyle McDonald)   [abstract]

2010 NASA Terrestrial Ecology Science Team Meeting Poster(s)

• Diagnosis and attribution of recent changes in vegetation productivity and the regional water balance for the Pan-Arctic basin and Alaska   --   (Ke Zhang, John S. Kimball, Scott Goetz)   [abstract]   [poster]
• Application of Space-borne Microwave and Optical-I/R Remote Sensing to Characterize Global Soil Moisture Constraints to Soil Respiration   --   (Lucas A. Jones, John S. Kimball, Yonhong Yi, Rolf H. Reichle, Kyle C. McDonald)   [abstract]   [poster]
• A satellite based algorithm to estimate global net ecosystem CO2 exchange   --   (Yonghong Yi, John S. Kimball, Rama R. Nemani, Kyle McDonald)   [abstract]

More details may be found in the following project profile(s):

• NASA Terrestrial Ecology (TE) Project Profile
• North American Carbon Program (NACP) Project Profile